Ronald Chase

Ronald Chase born December 29 1934 is an American artist photographer educator independent film maker and opera designer In 1963 Chase began making short experimental films with Fragments written by Mary Lee Settle and filmed in the Hudson Valley In 1964 he began experimenting with using film projections in theatre and dance performances These experiments produced the films The Covenant Chameleon and Clown as well as Parade a short documentary of the first Gay Lesbian Pride Parade in San Francisco Chase produced and directed two features in the 1970s BrugesLaMorte premiered at the 1978 Rotterdam Film Festival and was awarded the Critics Prize at the International Film Festival Ghent in 1980 LULU adapted from the play by Frank Wedekind screened at a number of festivals and was chosen as one of the three best films of 1978 by Pariscope but could not be released because of a copyright conflict with the estate of Alban Berg In 1993 Chase created the San Francisco Art Film Program for Teenagers a nonprofit devoted to making the arts accessible to young people SF Art Film has been cited as one of the most comprehensive art education programs in the United States